Butter Tart - Recipe

This recipe comes to you from my friend Lauren, in Ontario. She's about 5 years younger than I, but we kinda grew up together...I used to babysit her and her sisters, and we were in the same homeschooling group throughout our school "careers". She's a great cook and always posts great recipes. This one is from a Canadian cookbook that she has...

Butter Tarts - A Canadian Treat! I wanted to do something Canadian-y in honour of Thanksgiving on Monday, but didn't want to go all out with the big meal. I have never personally made these before, and they turned out EXCELLENTLY. I may or may not have eaten about half of these:-) Brian and the kids loved them too!

1/4 cup raisins or chopped pecans (optional)
12 unbaked tart shells
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup corn or maple syrup (I used maple syrup)
1 egg
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
Sprinkle raisins (or pecans) evenly in crust shells. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in corn syrup, egg, vinegar, vanilla and salt. Pour into shells, filling 3/4 full.
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool in pans for a few minutes, then remove to rack and let cool completely.

I did not add pecans or raisins...because I didn't have any on hand:-) Pecans make it taste a little more like a pecan pie, and raisins made them even sweeter!

Another picture, simply because they were *that good*

TART SHELL / PIE DOUGH

Best of Both Worlds Pie Dough
For one 9-inch pie crust (double if necessary)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 1/2T shortening (Frozen!)

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter (Frozen!)
* cut both of these into small cubes and pieces and toss in freezer
1/4 cup ice water
1 teaspoon cider vinegar (just add to the water)
Place dry ingredients into food processor and pulse a few times to distribute the salt and sugar.  Scatter frozen cubes of butter and shortening on top of the flour.

Pulse in processor for about 1 second each time until the mixture looks like coarse meal.  You can take a knife and fluff it around to be sure no large chunks are under the blade.  This should be about 6-8 pulses.  Once the fat is cut in, add the ice water through the chute about a tablespoon at a time while you continue short pulses.  The mixture will not look like cookie dough – it will probably look a little crumbly.  Periodically check to see if the dough pinches together.  When the dough begins to hold together, turn it out onto saran wrap, form into a ball, wrap and press it into a disc.  If you did a double batch, separate the dough into two discs.  Refrigerate for an hour or up to two days.

I made a large lemon raspberry tart with the leftover pie dough - had some raspberries to use up, but not enough to make a filling with.